Sony Pictures Computers Down for a Second Day After Network Breach

Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems were down for the second day in a row Tuesday after hackers claimed responsibility for breaching the company’s network and defacing its website.

On Monday, Sony Pictures was forced to take its systems offline after its website momentarily displayed an ominous image of a red skeleton that said “Hacked by #GOP” — an abbreviation that reportedly stands for Guardians of Peace. In their message, hackers warned that they had obtained internal corporate data and “top secrets” and threatened to leak them unless their demands were met. It was not clear what the hackers’ requests were.

“We’ve already warned you,” the hackers said in their message. “We continue until our request be met. We’ve obtained all your internal data including your secrets and top secrets. If you don’t obey us, we’ll release data shown below to the world.”

There was not yet evidence that the data had been released.

Sony has attributed the problem to “a system disruption.” The breach did not appear to affect Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Music Entertainment and other parts of the Sony Corporation. But within Sony Pictures, employees were still unable to get access to the company’s internal network Tuesday afternoon.

Emails sent to Sony Pictures employees bounced back on Tuesday. “Our email system is currently experiencing a disruption,” the return message read. “Please contact the person you wish to reach via office or mobile phone. Please do not reply to this email.”

The breach was the second time that Sony Corporation had been targeted by hackers. In 2011, hackers broke into the online network for Sony’s PlayStation game console, exposing names and credit card numbers for millions of customers.

Sony initially estimated the cost of that breach alone would cost $170 million, but that figure did not include the total cost of 50 class-action lawsuits, which sought up to $2 billion in damages.